--- description: France ordered a large-scale killing of ducks on Wednesday in three areas where a severe bird flu outbreak is currently underway. title: France Is Slaughtering Nearly 1 Million Ducks image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a8ff3d41176131c/6988b47b5f570f05bcb23ae2/ducks-culled-france-bird-flu.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # France Is Slaughtering Nearly 1 Million Ducks  by [Julia Zorthian](/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 5, 2017 1:59 PM CUT  People buy foie groie in the market in Samatan, southwestern France on Dec. 5, 2016\. An outbreak of avian influenza H5N8, "highly pathogenic" for birds but "harmless to humans", was detected in a duck farm in the Tarn commune of Almayrac, announced on Dec. 2, 2016 the Ministry of Agriculture. People buy foie groie in the market in Samatan, southwestern France on Dec. 5, 2016\. An outbreak of avian influenza H5N8, "highly pathogenic" for birds but "harmless to humans", was detected in a duck farm in the Tarn commune of Almayrac, announced on Dec. 2, 2016 the Ministry of Agriculture.Pascal Pavani—AFP/Getty Images  by [Julia Zorthian](/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 5, 2017 1:59 PM CUT France [ordered a large-scale killing of ducks](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-birdflu-france-idUSKBN14O1Q8 "undefined") on Wednesday in three areas where a [severe bird flu outbreak](http://time.com/4582063/germany-turkey-bird-flu/ "undefined") is currently underway, according to a [Reuters](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-birdflu-france-idUSKBN14O1Q8 "undefined") report. The country’s agriculture ministry said the highly contagious H5N8 bird flu virus has spread quickly through poultry populations in southwestern France, with 89 cases reported in total so far. So the ministry ordered that the free range ducks and geese in the administrative departments of Gers, Hautes-Pyrenees and Landes be culled in response — with an estimated total of 800,000 in the next week, Reuters reports. “The principle is to quickly kill the species most affected to date by the virus,” the ministry said in a statement, according to Reuters. The statement added that the ducks to be killed were owned by [foie gras](http://time.com/3659012/california-foie-gras-ban/ "undefined") producers. Marie-Pierre Pe from foie gras-maker CIFOG told _Reuters_ that the number of ducks killed could continue to increase if authorities fail to stem the spread of the virus. The ministry gave a deadline of Jan. 20 for the culling, but an official said they could stop earlier if the outbreak is contained. Both the Czech Republic and Slovenia announced the first outbreaks of this bird flu strain Wednesday. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4623542/france-slaughter-ducks/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4623542/france-slaughter-ducks/"},"headline":"France Is Slaughtering Nearly 1 Million Ducks","datePublished":"2017-01-05T13:59:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:33:46.323Z","description":"Due to a severe outbreak of bird flu","url":"https://time.com/4623542/france-slaughter-ducks/","keywords":["France","Food & Drink","animals","health","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a8ff3d41176131c/6988b47b5f570f05bcb23ae2/ducks-culled-france-bird-flu.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a8ff3d41176131c/6988b47b5f570f05bcb23ae2/ducks-culled-france-bird-flu.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"ducks culled france bird flu","caption":"ducks culled france bird flu","creditText":"Pascal Pavani—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4623542/france-slaughter-ducks/","name":"France Is Slaughtering Nearly 1 Million Ducks"}}]}] ```